This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitating a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Conventional optical modulators using different advanced modulation formats are typically implemented using discrete different components configured to perform one form of optical modulation. However, these discrete components can be bulky and expensive, and, mechanically unstable and difficult to control, when assembled in a final package (e.g., when mounted on a same circuit board).